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Claiming thousands of voters have been disenfranchised ahead of the May 17 special election, an attorney filed complaints Tuesday with Arizona's attorney general and secretary of state asking that the election be postponed.

Attorney Tom Ryan, of Chandler, asked Attorney General Mark Brnovich to seek a court ruling to cancel next Tuesday's election and reschedule it for later this year.

Tuesday's ballot contains two constitutional amendments: Proposition 123 and Proposition 124. Early voting has been underway for 2 1/2 weeks.

Brnovich's office said it was reviewing the complaint and would not comment until Wednesday.

Ryan proposed officials move the two propositions to either the Aug. 30 state primary election or the Nov. 8 general election. He also asked that the hundreds of thousands of ballots that have already been returned by voters on the early voting be considered void.

Prop. 123 is an education-funding plan aimed at resolving a six-year lawsuit and boosting money for schools. Prop. 124 would change the way benefit increases are paid to public-safety retirees.

Ryan argued that under a "strict compliance" provision in state law, the election should be postponed because Reagan's office did not get election information to voters in a timely manner.

"I recognize there will be anger over this complaint," Ryan wrote in his complaint. "But such anger, frustration and exasperation should be properly directed to the Office of the Secretary of State for her failure of office."

“The law is very clear: The secretary of state needs to get the publicity pamphlets out to everybody.”

Tom Ryan, attorney

He acknowledged he is a critic of Prop. 123, but added he supports Prop. 124. His complaint, he said, is not about the merits of the ballot proposals, but rather the "purity" of the election process.

"This is about all citizens of the state of Arizona being informed pro and con on the issues," Ryan said at a news conference held at the Secretary of State's Office.

The secretary of state learned of the pamphlet problem on April 22, said the Secretary of State's Office spokesman Matt Roberts. The office did not notify the public of the error until Friday. Roberts said the office has been “working diligently” to solve the problem.

Roberts said while Reagan's office accepted responsibility for the mailing oversight, which has since been corrected, its vendor, IBM, did not give the Secretary of State's Office complete information on how to create the mailing list. The error stemmed from a change made in 2011, even though there were no problems with publicity pamphlets mailed out for the 2012 and 2014 elections. The office has not renewed its contract with IBM.

Roberts also said Reagan's staff is skeptical about whether the "strict compliance" argument applies to the administration of an election, as opposed to placing an issue on the ballot.

"We’re taking a look at that … But that does not do anything to excuse the fact that we did not send out 200,000 of the pamphlets,” he said.

Asked why the secretary of state believes the election should still proceed, Roberts responded, “Right now, there’s nothing in statute that would allow us to delay the election, and secondarily, our office has taken all the steps it can to make sure all the folks that should have gotten a publicity pamphlet did, indeed, get one.”

He said he was unaware if Reagan, who was not available for comment, has spoken to Brnovich.

Ken Bennett, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2015, said there were no complaints from voters about not receiving their pamphlets in earlier elections. And Bennett, who now lives in Pinal County, said he thought it was curious when he received his pamphlet just a few days ago.

"I wondered why we didn't get our pamphlet 30 days early," he said.

He said initial explanations from the Secretary of State's Office that the 2011 policy was intended to spare voters on the early-ballot list from getting the pamphlet "made no sense."

"That's exactly who should get it," Bennett said, noting those voters by definition cast their ballots ahead of the official election day and need the information in the booklet.

Roberts wrote in an emailed statement on Monday: "Once we figured out what happened, we were able to have our vendor print the remaining pamphlets." In addition, the office mailed 13,000 pamphlets to people who registered to vote after the hefty booklet's printing deadline had passed, Roberts said.

Roberts said the secretary of state has terminated its relationship with the vendor.

The Legislature last year passed a bill, which Ducey signed, that requires “strict compliance” with existing laws regarding ballot referrals and initiatives. The legislation stems from a number of citizen-led drives, including the recall of then-Senate President Russell Pearce and a proposed top-two primary system.

Reagan, as a state senator and chairwoman of the Senate Elections Committee, convened a group to examine changes to election law, including the strict-compliance issue.

The error adds to a string of election-related missteps that have confounded voters and elections officials alike.

"The law is very clear: The secretary of state needs to get the publicity pamphlets out to everybody," he told The Arizona Republic. "Her failure to get them ... to voters is a very serious violation of her duties. I have the right to read them and understand them before I vote on them. These (the initiatives) are major changes to the Arizona Constitution and ... voters deserve to read them. (Campaign) TV commercials rarely tell the whole story."

In a statement, Prop. 123’s campaign manager, J.P. Twist, said the election should proceed, despite the pamphlet problem.

"The intent of a May election was to get money into classrooms at the earliest possible moment,” he wrote. "Any delay just results in our schools being underfunded longer. While are disappointed with the circumstance, we believe that with well over half a million votes cast, we should press on with the election.”

Bryan Jeffries, campaign chairman of Prop. 124, said the pamphlet problems “is certainly not ideal for us,” but the election should not be postponed.

“Over half a million people have cast their ballots, we believe those votes should be counted … we believe they should not be thrown out due to this technicality, and this ongoing fight between Tom Ryan and the secretary of state,” Jeffries said.